Affective Disorder in the Neurological Patient

Depressive symptom patterns and their consequences for diagnosis of affective disorders in cancer patients

“…Only two studies used multivariate procedures to consider intercorrelations between symptoms [26,49]. Nevertheless, the difference between depressed and nondepressed patients with somatic diseases regarding the presence of cognitive symptoms had also been demonstrated [7,10,14,22,32,37,51]. In two studies with mixed samples of patients with somatically ill patients [14,32] and coronary heart disease patients [22] and chronic pain patients [51], loss of interest proved to be of specific importance for differentiation.…”

“…This result confirms the findings of other studies that investigated predominant depressive symptoms in somatic illness. Independently from applied methodological approaches, this symptom is reported by most authors as differentiating between patients with and without depression in addition to their medical condition [7,10,14,22,26,32,49]. Depressed mood and loss of interest are defined as main symptoms of affective disorders.…”

“…Only two studies were conducted with cancer patients [10,37]. Other studies included patients with neurologic [7,20,21] and cardiovascular diseases [22]. One study investigated chronic pain patients [51].…”

Cognitive Function in the Affective Disorders: A Prospective Study

“…When cognitive impairment is accompanied by reversible soft neurological signs, it tends to be more marked, and pa tients thus affected show lower depressive scores; this does not mean, however, that their affective disorder is less severe. Instead, this group may represent a secondary, 'organic' form of affective disorder [56] characterised by a reduced capacity to experience depres sive symptoms [57], probably periventricular white-matter changes on CAT scan [58], and by little improvement at follow-up.…”

The role of psychiatry in genetic prediction programmes for Huntington's disease

“…(b) They may be forms of experience or behaviour which are different in quality to conventional symptoms and hence are difficult to describe: for example, it is not uncommon for subjects suffering from neurological disorder to report strange experiences for which the psychiatrist has no name; these reports may be ignored altogether or forced into a known category (Berrios & Samuel, 1987). (c) Such changes in behaviour may be difficult to capture on account of the rate at which they develop: the slower the installation of a new behaviour or experience the higher the chance that it will be missed out altogether.…”